Super Tuesday's slew of presidential primary elections and state caucuses underscored a recurring challenge for GOP presidential nomination front-runner Mitt Romney — his inability to clinch broad-based support within his own party.

Rick Santorum continues as the fly in the ointment for the Romney camp. The former Pennsylvania senator, for lack of a better option, has become the anti-Romney, much to the chagrin of the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney secured expected victories in Massachusetts, Vermont, Idaho, Virginia and Alaska, though Rep. Ron Paul gave Romney a challenge in Virginia, where they were the only two on the ballot. Santorum won in Tennessee, Oklahoma and unexpectedly, in North Dakota, a state Romney carried in the 2008 GOP race. Newt Gingrich won a decisive victory in his home state, Georgia.

Even the night's biggest story, Romney's paper-thin victory over Santorum in the battleground state of Ohio, offered more evidence of the divisions in the Republican base. Romney is still not connecting with far too many voters, and his strongest opposition is coming from a former senator with little political cash to spend.

What does it say about a front-runner who is able in most states to attain only a plurality, rather than a majority, of his party's support despite far outspending his opponents?

Even after Super Tuesday, Romney still looms as the GOP's inevitable nominee but he has serious challenges. As a result of his inability to date to connect with base Republican voters, Romney has little traction in Southern states, vital GOP terrain.

Part of Romney's challenge is that, as he attempts to run away from his New England Republican persona, voters aren't convinced by his professed conversion to quasi-conservatism. It is more difficult for traditionally moderate New England Republicans to be successful in today's more conservative Republican Party; but it is not insurmountable. What may most alienate voters is that Romney comes off as unwilling to acknowledge his biggest mistakes and condemn them — particularly Romneycare, the Massachusetts health-care law enacted while he was governor that shares key features with the president's health care overhaul despised by so many Republicans.

Not having a widely liked front-runner for the GOP at this juncture in an election year is viewed as a benefit for President Obama, who is able to sit back and watch the Republican contenders bash each other. On the flip side, though, the extension of the primary campaign will force the Republicans to campaign in parts of the United States more intensively than they would have had to in prior years, which may have residual benefit during the general election.

Super Tuesday changed little in the GOP primary and further highlighted Romney's inability to overcome the doubts a portion of the Republican base has about his candidacy.

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